10:41 am - Some marketing amusement, and an update on thingsI picked this little bit of razzle-dazzle on the Crummy Church Signs blog, always a good read. What if Starbucks marketed like a church?

I have finished Trance 1, and am working my way through my last unanswered question of Divination 2. . . Or, I was until I realized that I had somehow entirely missed a 600-word essay summarizing the results of divinations I did. Oy. Now, instead of a single, paltry 1,000 word essay, I have to write two essays that total at least 1,600 more words.

Yesterday was not a good day. Today, so far, is shaping up much nicer. Tomorrow, of course, is The Game, which means that football season at Ohio State begins and ends tomorrow, as it does every year. And tonight, I think, will be a night at Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo.

The Grove has also (thanks to seamus_mcnasty's inspiration) decided to run our own World AIDS Day event, since apparently there are no WAD events in Columbus that I have been able to find and get attached to. Now I get to figure out how to make it work :)

I've been fortunate that, since Samhain, I'm not as busy as I was all summer and all autumn. At the moment, I'm spending a lot more time relaxing, getting in some Diablo 2 and finally completing two Clergy Training Program courses. I'm almost a month ahead of schedule on my CTP work at this point, but staying on that course requires that we pass the remaining four courses in CTP Circle 2 before Jan. 1, 2009. We'll see how that goes.

Re: Javeleuia!!!

I have had this conversation with a lot of people. (when I was a UU) It is not the information so much, people like to know that they were noticed, it is the feeling of being singled out or like they were "forced" to do something. Actually the biggest complaint I have heard is when people fill out something and then never hear back.

After seeing the video I remembered that I had been asking people as part of my pre-ritual briefing who had never been to an ADF rite and who had never been to a public pagan rite before. Last time after the rite a friend of Lassair's told her "I have really never been to a public ritual before" which worried me that she was afraid to raise her hand at the beginning.

Re: Javeleuia!!!

*nods* It's important to get accurate counts, and equally important to ensure that folk know where to leave their info, if they want it. The book's always done a great job of that, but I've always felt odd asking people to sign it, myself.

Ah, if only I wasn't on dialup, I might have some clue what was in the video and what everyone else was talking about. >8)

I've actually been invited to speak at our area's World AIDS Week thingy. When they called to ask me to speak, I swear I heard them ask if I could talk for three minutes. Assuming that there would be dozens of clergy types involved, this didn't strike me as odd, so I agreed. I've now gotten the official announcement for the event, and I've discovered that they're expecting me to talk for THIRTY minutes. Ay ay ay. Wish me luck.

Meh. I went to a Pentecostal church when I was a kid, and it wasn't really like that (and they're supposedly the most rabid). I don't recall anyone looking down on any new people; then again, most of the parishioners were pretty poor. You also weren't asked to fill anything out before the service; maybe you were after, but I don't recall. You were, however, strongly encouraged to come down for the altar call, but nobody was ever *specifically* singled out. Instead, the preacher would say something like, "The Lord is telling me that there's someone new here who needs to come down and receive him... you know who you are..." or something to that effect. I actually prefer small Pentecostal services to the megachurch crap.